Harvey: Wait until next year … again

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The good news … well there is no good news for the Texans.

But if there were good news, it would be that the Texans play the New England Patriots at home in the 2013 regular season.

There is always next season, for worse or worse. No one knows that better than Houston pro football fans, whose combined AFL/NFL teams haven’t won a championship in more than half a century.

The AFL’s Oilers won in 1960 and ’61.

There have been no championships since, not for the AFL Oilers, not for the NFL Oilers after the merger and not for the NFL Texans.

That means none for the Luv You Blue era.

None of the Run ‘n’ Shoot era.

None so far for the McNair Era.

There was a fever pitch in Houston for this season’s team after the team reached the AFC divisional round in 2012 before losing at Baltimore. It’s difficult to remember now what that optimism was based on.

Matt Schaub’s return?

He was injured during the playoff run last season, leading some to believe the team would improve with him as the quarterback, but he slumped badly after the first half of this season. The offense slumped with him.

It’s difficult to point to the exact moment when the season started to go wrong, but it was before the team brought an 11-1 record into New England on Dec. 10 in Week 14 and lost, 42-24. The score Sunday, against the Patriots in the AFC divisional round, was a more respectable, 41-28, but the game wasn’t much closer than the first one.

I’d say it was clear the Texans weren’t Super Bowl material three weeks before the first loss to the Patriots, when the Texans had to go into overtime at Reliant Stadium to beat a Jacksonville team that would finish with a 2-14 record.

Schuab threw five touchdown passes in that game. In the next eight games, including two Sunday, he threw six.

At some point, Texans coach Gary Kubiak lost confidence in Schaub and became ultra-conservative in his play calling. The Texans lost three of their last four regular-season games and any shot they had at home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs, which is the reason they were playing again in Foxborough on Sunday.

No one can blame Kubiak for Sunday’s loss. He opened up the offense. But the offense, Schaub in particular, failed to execute.

There was some speculation, based on nothing other than Schaub’s ineffectiveness, that he was injured in the latter part of the season. But the Texans never addressed it if he was indeed hurt.

It would almost be better if he did have some hidden injury because that would enable Texans fans to have some glimmer of hope for a better ending next season.

I’m guessing, though, Texans fans won’t be fooled again.

They’re too smart to believe the Texans are going to the Super Bowl until they see it. Or too experienced with teams that left them with that empty feeling.